Published 27 April 2024 at 15.10
Foreign. During the #Metoo media frenzy, the American Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein was sentenced without evidence to prison for rape and sexual assault in New York. Now the verdict is overturned, writes the New York Times.
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According to the New York Supreme Court, the use of character witnesses – so-called gossip witnesses – constituted a trial error and the trial must therefore reversed.
The character witnesses consisted of groups of women who were not plaintiffs, but who testified about their own experiences of sexual assault by Weinstein even though these alleged assaults were not part of the indictment.
According to the new ruling, the character witnesses were not admissible because they can only be used in certain cases – among other things to prove intent.
However, according to the superior court, the witnesses were “unnecessary to prove the defendant's intent and only served to prove his propensity to commit the charged acts”.
By a vote of 3-4, the court therefore acquits Weinstein pending a new trial.
However, he will not be released because he has been convicted for several other sex crimes – even those with no evidence other than women testifying in groups – in other parts of the US during #Metoo.